A great number of anionic coordination catalyst systems are based on the use of titanium based catalyst on a magnesium chloride support.
A typical catalyst system employing magnesium chloride is disclosed in British Pat. No. 2,111,066 assigned to Mitsui Petrochemical Industries Ltd.
Certain prior art patents teach magnesium compound supported Ziegler-Natta type catalysts that do not directly employ magnesium chloride in catalyst preparation. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,318 describes a mixed catalyst component which is the reaction product of magnesium alcoholates with tetravalent halogenated titanium compounds.
Other prior art patents using alkoxides as a magnesium source for formation of an olefin polymerization catalyst are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,144,390; 4,277,372; 4,460,701; 4,485,186; 4,497,905, and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,099.
It is the discovery of co-pending application Ser. No. 861,392 filed 05/09/86, that highly organic solvent soluble alcoholates of magnesium can be prepared if magnesium is reacted with alkoxy alcohols. The resultant alkoxy alcohol derivates of magnesium are readily soluble in organic solvents such as hexane, heptane, toluene, xylene, and etc.
The prior art does not recognize the advantageous use of highly organic solvent soluble alkoxy alkoxides of magnesium. Moreover, the prior art generally employs halogenating agents other than the transition metal halides which are normally part of the polymerization catalyst.
It is desirable to develop new anionic coordination catalyst systems having novel sources of magnesium to serve as support for titanium-based catalysts.